[lg policy] blog: From a non-Ilocano with PASSION to save the Ilocano language

[Harold Schiffman]

>>From a non-Ilocano with PASSION to save the Ilocano language

F. McEachern

Dear Joe,

Here are the first 9 parts of the column I have been writing for the
Northern Star, the SunStar Baguio, the Observer, the Weekly Banat, and
the Ilocos Herald. It explores issues of language discrimination,
language threats, the benefits of multilingualism, the need for
language preservation and reform, and suggested actions to be taken by
society and government in the Philippines. Additional parts shall be
sent as they come out.

I’m so glad you are pursuing the MLE cause with perseverance and
rationality, and I wasn’t aware you were one of the people supporting
DepEd’s multilingual education policy… How did you get involved? I
arrived in the Philippines at a very interesting and critical time!

I, and about 50 supporters, spoke at the Provincial Capitol of La
Union to propose legislation to declare Ilokano to be an official
language of the province and to institute standards across several
sectors to correct some of the marginalization and discrimination that
the local language has suffered: for example, standards for greeting
customers in commercial establishments, minimum inclusion of Ilokano
programming and content in radio and newsprint, more bi/tri-lingual
government banners, and support for DepEd’s MLE policy. The board
members were largely positive about the proposal, and there will be
committee meetings over the next few months to produce a draft
ordinance, and then it has to go through public hearings. So of course
there are a lot of uncertainties: will it be passed? how diluted will
it be? will it actually be implemented with enough funding, resources,
staff, etc? But it’s worth the try! If you have any ideas of things
that should definitely go in the ordinance based on your Fishman
reading, please let me know! The example legislation we gave the
Province to base their ordinance off of is the Catalan Linguistic Act
of 1998, which is widely regarded as a good model. But Catalonia is
wealthier than La Union and I think its native population and
government have more concern and will to revitalize their language…

Cheers,
Firth

http://mlephil.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/from-a-non-ilocano-with-passion-to-save-the-ilocano-language/

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